


Seabane

by Bitterblue



Category: Graceling - Kristin Cashore, Seven Kingdoms Trilogy - Kristin Cashore
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-06
Updated: 2012-09-06
Packaged: 2017-11-13 16:02:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitterblue/pseuds/Bitterblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Po is worried when Katsa stops taking seabane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seabane

**Author's Note:**

> For Oishi and Nina.

When Katsa carefully removes all of the seabane from her pack, Po notices. She's trying hard not to think about it, or him, in any combination, but sometimes the trying is just as obvious as the original thoughts themselves. He doesn't comment right away, and not to Katsa. He doesn't want a fight; not yet.

He isn't sure who to ask or how to do so. Raffin would know if there are other contraceptive plants, but Po is fairly sure she is not packing anything he doesn't recognise. They'll be gone for ages. Helda won't tell him unless Katsa says to. Bitterblue has greater worries as she reconstructs her ministries than what Katsa is and is not doing with herbs. In the end, he goes to Giddon.

"So I think Katsa has stopped, or is going to stop, taking seabane. I don't know what to do."

Giddon looks like he would prefer to be anywhere else than mediating Po and Katsa's relationship troubles, but he valiantly sighs and considers. "Maybe she's changed her mind after all. Maybe she wants a child? Monsea is going to be a good place. The Dells are a very good place, and she said she liked it there. Maybe a lot of things. Look, Po. I can't guess Katsa's mind. I would have thought you'd know that. Katsa is and always has been inscrutable to me and when I was arrogant enough to think otherwise I got pretty thoroughly dissuaded. Why can't you just ask her?"

Po sighs. "I don't want her to want a child. I don't want that to have changed. I don't want a child with Katsa, or with anyone. What if she _has_ changed her mind?"

"Are you seriously asking me for relationship advice?"

Po laughs, then, and hits him gently on the shoulder. "Okay. Okay, point taken."

He waits until they have left the city. The press of people and animals and buildings is too much for his Grace, still, sometimes, and he wants to be in a quieter place.

"Wildcat. I think we should talk."

She is all guilt and secrets when he touches her mind. "Oh? About what?" He raises his eyebrows and waits. Katsa, stubborn, ignores him and goes back to her meal.

"Katsa. Stop. We need to talk. You stopped carrying seabane. I need to know why and what that means for us. You--have you changed your mind? About wanting children? Because that does change things for us, quite a lot."

"Right, yes, of course, because if I want children then you'll finally have a good reason to have me marry you and keep me locked up safe in Lienid."

"What? No. No, Katsa, no. That's not it at all. I don't--we've had this fight. I don't want that. I don't care if you ever marry me. I just want you, but if you're not taking the seabane anymore, then I don't quite see how this could work."

She sighs, and he can feel the apology she isn't saying aloud. "I've stopped carrying it, yes. When I was in the Dells, Lady Fire gave me a different herb. One that...permanently prevents pregnancy. It makes a woman sterile. I took it. We won't need seabane anymore. She used it herself, to prevent more human monsters being born, and has never conceived. Po, I thought you'd be angry. That you still, some small part of you, would want children that I cannot give--truly can't, now. I thought you would be hurt I did this without asking you."

He has the knack of looking at a person, even though he cannot see them, down to an art, and he can see the truth of her words and the worry and fear she is opening to him like half-forgotten colours, shades of purple-green-grey in his mind. He moves to sit beside her, and touches her cheek. "No. Not angry. Come here." He takes her face in his hands, and kisses her.


End file.
